106 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



of a shrub to that of a small tree. The leaves are oblong, silvery 

 white, the branches rusty white, and sometimes quite thorny, with 

 numerous thorn-like limbs. The flowers are small, yellow, dioecious, 

 the sterile ones with a four-parted calyx, and eight stamens. The 

 fertile flowers have a calyx, shaped like an urn, which en- 

 closes the ovary that becomes the berry-like fruit. The 

 fruit is roundish, varying in color from a dull red to a 

 scarlet, slightly, but only slightly, acid, and until quite ripe, 

 somewhat astringent, though agreeable. It is an enormous 

 bearer, the fruit being produced in very compact masses in the axils 

 of the branches. The fruit ripens in early autumn, and if left un- 

 disturbed hangs until winter. The plant is very hardy, and can be 

 grown in any good soil. The only drawback to the cultivation of this 

 fruit is that it is dioecious, and one of each sex must be planted to 

 obtain fruit, though if many be planted in a row or cluster, one 

 staminate or male tree will be enough to fertilize seven or eight 

 pistillate plants. It is one of the easiest of all fruits to propagate. 

 After the berries are gathered and the seeds removed from the pulp, 

 they can be planted at once or kept in sand until spring. They 

 ought to be sowed in drills and covered about two inches deep. At 

 one year old they should be transplanted into ordinary nursery 

 rows, about four feet apart. In three years from the seed they will 

 bloom, when they can be examined, and labels attached to the stam- 

 inate plants, after which, for convenience sake, each kind had bet- 

 ter be placed in a row by itself. 



Wherever this berry becomes known it is at once a favorite, and 

 being so hardy and easily propagated it soon could supply the set- 

 tler with an abundance of delicious berries. Among the purposes 

 for which it is used is' the manufacture of jelly, of which it produces 

 an article that for richness of flavor is surpassed by no other fruit. 



Sheperdia Canadensis, which is found on the Niobrara is scarcely 

 less beautiful than the Buffalo Berry. Its fruit is less insipid than 

 represented, and is even esteemed by many. The berry is yellow- 

 ish red. 



THE ELDERBERRY. 



Many of the emigrants from the eastern States are glad to find 

 an old favorite, the Elderberry, Sambucus Canadensis, among the 

 wild fruits of Nebraska. Though the shrub which produces this 

 berry has a rather rank smell, especially when bruised, and its fruit 

 is seldom eaten in a raw state, yet the berries are really so delicious, 



